(Credit: IFC Films)

It’s that time of year again, watchers. You blink, and before you realise it, every platform is flooded with holiday rom-coms, including Netflix. Couples ice skating. Couples decorating cookies. Couples wearing matching pyjamas in log cabins that have fairy lights… EVERYWHERE. And listen, we get it. It’s cute and all that. But sometimes? You just want a movie that doesn’t make you feel like you are missing out on some magical love story.

So if you are single right now and not in a “sad violin playing in the background” way, just in a “just figuring it out, waiting for the right time” way, Frances Ha might just be what you need. This Greta Gerwig beauty is not about falling in love. It is about floating a little, crashing a little, and still carrying on. It has no glittery kisses where the heroine is supposed to lift a leg. Just a girl, figuring out her life with all the pauses, financial mess, missed subway stops, and emotional clinginess we all secretly or openly relate to.

Frances (played by Greta Gerwig, who also co-wrote it) is a 27-year-old dancer in New York who is kind of… not dancing. Her career is in limbo, and her friendships are shifting. On top of that, she is broke and is constantly making questionable decisions. But she has this charm, this lovable, full-of-feelings energy that makes you want to root for her even when she is doing the most impractical things. She moves from apartment to apartment, city to city, holding on to hope and people.

And that’s the thing. Frances Ha doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It is not trying to be inspiring in that Pinterest quote way. It just exists like life. You watch her drift through friendships and try to hold on to closeness even when it’s clearly slipping away. You see her celebrate the tiniest wins because that’s all she has got. You feel her embarrassment in full force. And it feels comforting. Like you’re not failing just because you haven’t figured it all out by your late twenties, as most sitcoms taught us.

Greta Gerwig is so, so good in this. She plays Frances with a loose energy that makes even the cringey moments feel soft. She’s funny, but not in a punchline way. More in a Fleabag kind of way. And Noah Baumbach’s black-and-white aesthetic adds this beauty to the mess, like you’re watching someone’s real life, not a polished story arc. Bumbach just gave Netflix another gem: Jay Kelly.

If there is anything to nitpick, maybe it’s that it gets a little too much into Frances’s world. Some side characters come and go without much impact. But honestly? That’s how it feels when you are in that weird space between girlhood and adulthood. People float in and out, and you’re the only constant in your own story. Total main character energy.

So yeah. If you are not in the mood for another over-the-top holiday romance, put Frances Ha on. Watch it when you are alone, and you just want to feel seen, like actually seen. It won’t solve anything. But it will sit with you for a while. And sometimes, that’s enough.